The invention relates to a dispenser for media. They can be liquid, powdery, gaseous and/or pasty. The dispenser may be carried and simultaneously operated single-handed. The discharge unit or deliverer can be a pump, the valve of a pressure vessel, such as an aerosol vessel or the like. The medium may be atomized at the medium exit in an atomized state, or may be discharged as a non-atomized jet, as droplets or as an extruded line.
A small dispenser having an axial actuation stroke of less than 5 mm or 3 mm and a maximum outer diameter of less than 25 mm, 20 mm or 18 mm comprises a handle which could be manually actuated parallel to the axis of the dispenser or transverse thereto. This motion of the handle is to be translated into an axial motion of an actuating shaft. The individual components of such a dispenser are very small. They are sensitive to mechanical loads as well as being difficult to support. An external surface which is irregular over the length of the dispenser and multiply stepped at the outer circumference or in the manual gripping zone may make handling and stowing away difficult.
An object is to provide a dispenser which obviates the disadvantages of prior art constructions or of the kind as described. Particularly, the intention is for the dispenser to ensure despite miniature dimensions high mechanical stability, safe and precise functioning as well as being easy to use and uncomplicated to handle.
According to the invention means are provided to reliably guide the actuating shaft radially and/or prevented from rotation over a length which is more than half its diameter. This guidance may be provided in the vicinity of the coupling connection between the handle and the shaft and/or directly adjacent upstream thereof. Guidance is done directly on the inner circumference of the outermost shell wall of the base body. The guide part of the shaft may form an axial stop for the actuated end position or for the position remote from the initial position. This stop abuts against an end face of the housing of the deliverer into which the shaft permanently protrudes.
Over its major length or over more than two-thirds or three-quarters of its length, the dispenser in use has constant outer width. This is reduced only in the vicinity of the exit head. Beyond this width bound only the handle protrudes radially outwards. The dispensers overall length is at least five, seven or eight times more than the outer width. Within the length of constant outer width a medium reservoir is longer than the base body by at least half the bodies length. This constantly wide outer circumference extends over a length of at least 8 cm or 10 cm. Thus this outer circumference forms a favorable gripping face while actuating because all fingers of the user hand can surround and support on it. A removable cover for the exit head directly adjoins the base body and the handle by the cited outer width.
The cited, constantly wide circumferential face of the pin-shaped dispenser is interrupted only in sections which extend over part of the length and of the circumference of the base body. These sections in which the circumferential face is transversely offset relative to the constantly wide portions may be a window opening for engaging the handle, an inclined surface for receiving the handle in the actuated end position or a recessed finger scallop remote from the handle.
The cover cap for the exit head engages the inner circumference of the base body. The cap comprises an inclined face which is tensioned relative to a conical end face of the base body or of the handle. Thus actuation is locked in the initial position. In this position the handle protrudes radially beyond the outer circumference of the base body by maximally a third or half of the constant outer width. In every position the handle is spaced from and located between both ends of the base body so that it cannot cover the reservoir.
The exit head comprises a one-part, oblong head cap. The end wall thereof is traversed by a nozzle duct or the medium exit. A separate nozzle core extends from the inside of this end wall exclusively upstream. This core forms an assembly unit with the actuator. The core is located without contact within the head cap over its major length. An outlet duct traverses the actuator shaft and the nozzle core. In cross-section this duct is non-circular but flat. The cross-sectional length of this duct is at least half or twice as large as its cross-sectional width or at least as large or larger than the outer width of the nozzle core. Thus the duct traverses an outer end wall in the region of the ducts narrow sides. The core body emanates from this wall only upstream. The duct forms passage openings at the outer circumference of the core body and adjoins this end face. Through these openings the medium can exit from the interior of the duct to the outer circumference of the core body.
The passage openings extend up to the inner side of an end wall by the outer side of which the core body is located directly adjacent to the end wall of the head cap or to the inner end of the nozzle duct. An axial duct leads from each opening of the core body to the outside of the end wall of the core body from where a transverse duct is directed to the nozzle duct. Each of the cited duct sections is circumferentially sealingly closed. All duct sections connecting downstream to the duct exits traversing the end wall and these duct exits are bounded in two parts, namely by the actuator shaft and the cap of the exit head. Upstream thereof and up to the pressure space of the discharge unit the duct is located totally within the actuator shaft, which circumferentially entirely bounds the duct in one part. Thus minute dose quantities can be discharged very accurately and thereby atomized.
Reference is made to DE-OS 196 10 456 as regards further features and effects to be incorporated in the present invention.